Mets should fire Randolph ... for his sake
Posted: Tuesday, May 27, 2008 7:56 PM
I don’t know what Mets owner Fred Wilpon is waiting for, unless it’s for his underachieving team to go on a 10-game winning streak and save Willie Randolph’s job. But it ain’t gonna happen, and all Wilpon is accomplishing is the public torture of one of the finest men ever to play sports in New York.
I hate to say it, but Randolph is done in New York. The sooner Wilpon and general manager Omar Minaya fire him, the sooner the Mets can get on with the business of messing up this season. And I’m pretty sure that’s what they’ll do, because the Mets problem is on the field, not in the dugout.
But as much as I think Randolph isn’t to blame for the Mets’ disappointing start, I’m even more convinced that he’s been so damaged he can no longer lead the team. As his center fielder, Carolos Belttran, was honest enough to admit, when the manager’s job is in jeopardy, it’s a big-time distraction.
Teams never play better when their manager is twisting in the wind. When the rumors start that the manger’s head is on the block and the talk stations are consumed with the subject, players don’t rally around their wounded leader. If they didn’t play well for him when all was well, why would they start when the clubhouse is neck-deep in turmoil?
In anything, teams play worse when the managerial death watch is on. If they really like the guy, they try too hard. If they don’t like him, they subconsciously back off the accelerator even more, just to get rid of him.
Wilpon and team officials met with Randolph for hours on Monday, and when the meetings were done, the owner said Randolph would stay. Minaya said only that Randolph was still the manager and refused to even issue a courtesy lie and say that he fully expected Randolph to finish the season.
Votes of confidence are meaningless, but they’re at least an effort to settle down the clubhouse. Minaya wouldn’t do that much. What does that tell you about Randolph’s future?
I’ll answer that: he has none. Randolph is a future ex-manager. They can win a couple of games, but they’ll hit another rough streak, the chants of “Fire Willie” will continue to cascade from the Shea Stadium stands, the tabloids and talk shows will be all Willie all the time, and Wilpon will let drop the axe.
Wilpon knows it. Minaya knows it. The team knows it. Even Randolph has to know it.
Randolph is too good a man to drag the process out. Fire him now and be done with it.
